Novels

 The setting line, card game and sample stories I write are all designed to be fun to play or read but also to make writing fiction set in the Legend setting easier. This page lists my tips about writing long format or anthology text in the Legend setting. 

Format

There are two main formats that are long enough to sell on their own. The first is a conventional novel. These are normally 30,000 to 100,000 words in length. Writing one takes a lot of planning and time but with that much space there is room for incredible storytelling. An anthology is a collection of shorter fiction that is mostly under 30,000 words each. This style can have recurring characters and a plot or be unrelated short stories. Neither of these formats is better than the other.

Another consideration is perspective. Most novels are either from third person, using pronouns like he and they, or first person, using I as a pronoun. Switching is possible but should not happen in the middle of a scene. Following one single character is the default for a story. If you are planning on more than one main character to be the perspective character in a scene then make sure you can write both characters well. They should sound different.

Starting Out

I've heard it said by some of the world's most popular authors that your first one million words are practice. I agree. It took be 5 years to train to write my first few novels. In the beginning just keep writing. Most of it will be crud. Really bad, cheesy crud. Push through it and in time, with enough practice, you will have it in you to make something sale quality. You need to know your strengths and play to them. Weaknesses? Don't care. People only notice the words you write not the ones you don't. Figure out what you enjoy writing as well.

Planning

Now comes the advice about how to actually do the mechanics of novel writing. First is a plan. Different authors have different ways of planning. Some plan a lot and some plan very little and make it up as they type. Me? I do exactly 50-50. This is uncommon but it works for me. This section will reference a lot of my products and free product samples. This is a guide to using my setting after all. If you want to make up your own I'd advise against it. Mine took 20 years to make and isn't done yet. It's meant to be shared so please do share it.

First you will need a time period and a main character. I recommend getting these from the Quantum card game line. Quantum is designed to contain everything needed to write any of my settings and all of my license compatible characters. Making up your own characters is of course allowed but if you're doing all of your characters custom then you don't need this page here.

Once you have a setting work to familiarize yourself with the cards for its history, culture and layout. Do not change these facts but think about how your characters interpret their own homeland and its history. No one perfectly understands the past and don't expect every myth to be true. They aren't in real life either.

Preparation

There are two things an author needs in order to succeed. The first is typing software. I use a variety of software depending on the length and complexity of a book. For most things I use LibreOffice. This is a free typing and typesetting software that can save in the universally compatible Word format. It can also export directly to PDF. For longer works I use Scrivener. It costs $20 to buy a copy and the license never expires. I often take notes on my Android and I just use the default note taking application for it. You don't need fancy equipment or expensive software to do the job. If you're going into this thinking you can buy your way to success you're going to go nowhere.

The second thing is food. Writing fiction is serious exercise for the brain. It burns calories and consumes protein faster than running in a marathon does. Eat a ton of food. If you're worried about gaining weight more than being healthy then give up now. Being an author isn't a beauty contest. Eat healthy homemade food or you'll burn out in a couple days. Prioritize meat protein and sugar. The food from my cookbook Cooking With a Wolf is custom designed to be perfect for the job. If you are vegan then I wouldn't try. I've done years of research into the chemistry of food and there's no way you can do this job without meat. We're mammals. We can digest meat and milk. This means we're supposed to. Eat healthy and celebrate your hard work.

Genres

The Legend setting is built to support three distinct genres.

Romance and Erotica

Plots featuring romance, intimacy and actual sex scenes are allowed by the Legend setting and the licensing deal. All sex scenes should be written to make sense to the characters. Remember that a character should have a motive or goal in a strong narrative even if that goal is about friendship or intimacy. Intelligent characters don't need a prompt telling them to have sex. They are capable of informed consent or they wouldn't be allowed in this genre. 

Action and Adventure

To write an action centered plot first something needs to go wrong. A story where there is no conflict and no goal by definition is not a story. Make up a villain character you can afford to kill or get rid of and then make sure they have a motive. Have the protagonists take an active role in preventing this motive even if it involves combat or risk. The characters in Quantum all have defined combat specialties and these can be relied on to help action scenes. Quantum can't do the whole job though as a good combat sequence needs to involve some creativity. Expect them take twice as much work per word as a normal scene.

Slice of Life and Comedy 

Despite the simplicity of describing it, a story about a character's normal life is reliably the hardest to create. Thankfully this kind of story can be combined with the other two genres. Slice of life elements make a great break in a romance or action plot. They help the reader identify with the characters more strongly. The key rule is though that the characters need a strong goal that they can reasonably achieve in the narrative. 

Sales

This document would not be complete without some mention of selling a book. Digital ebook sales are possible but reliably are almost impossible to market. Thousands of ebooks are released a day and there's no way to stand out. Print books can be handmade and sold at conventions and fairs. Just get an ink tank printer, order paper in bulk and hand bind the books with plastic report covers. They're handmade by the author and I recommend hand signing each one.

The other option is to release regular free chapters or novels as PDF downloads and sign up for Patreon. However, be prepared to make content every month if you want to earn income from Patreon on a monthly basis. Be fully trained before going professional. I use this platform to run the license. It's $15 a month for unlimited access toy setting and characters. See the Partnership page for more details.

C J Mcpherson